What is your Visual Arts Journal?
You are required to keep a Visual Arts Journal to record your process and progress over the next two years.
The purpose of your Visual Arts Journal is to encourage personal investigation into visual arts, which must be closely related to the studio work undertaken. Your journal should incorporate contextual, visual and critical investigation. It is a working document that supports your independent, informed investigation and studio practice. Your journal provides an opportunity for reflection and discovery and plays a key role in allowing ideas to take shape and grow. It should contain visual and written material that address contextual, visual and critical aspects of the investigation. It should also reflect your interests and include wide-ranging first-hand investigations into issues and ideas related to visual arts. There should be a balance in the investigation between analytical and open-ended discussion, illustrating your creative thinking.
Although it will not be assessed directly, it is a crucial part of the course as it will provide much of the material and evidence needed to complete your assessment tasks.
The purpose of your Visual Arts Journal is to encourage personal investigation into visual arts, which must be closely related to the studio work undertaken. Your journal should incorporate contextual, visual and critical investigation. It is a working document that supports your independent, informed investigation and studio practice. Your journal provides an opportunity for reflection and discovery and plays a key role in allowing ideas to take shape and grow. It should contain visual and written material that address contextual, visual and critical aspects of the investigation. It should also reflect your interests and include wide-ranging first-hand investigations into issues and ideas related to visual arts. There should be a balance in the investigation between analytical and open-ended discussion, illustrating your creative thinking.
Although it will not be assessed directly, it is a crucial part of the course as it will provide much of the material and evidence needed to complete your assessment tasks.
What form should my journal take?
This is up to you. Nonetheless, you are encouraged to keep an A4 hard cover book as well as an electronic journal.
Why A4?
A scanned page from an A4 book should easily fit onto a screen (for your Process Portfolio) in portrait view without losing legibility and with plenty of space for additional text or images. A3 might be a little more difficult to handle as you either will need to reduce the size significantly or crop the page.
Maintaining an electronic journal
Coming soon
Why A4?
A scanned page from an A4 book should easily fit onto a screen (for your Process Portfolio) in portrait view without losing legibility and with plenty of space for additional text or images. A3 might be a little more difficult to handle as you either will need to reduce the size significantly or crop the page.
Maintaining an electronic journal
Coming soon
What goes into my journal?
Your Visual Arts Journal will include at least the following:
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How can I use my journal to support my assessment tasks?
It is expected that much of the written work submitted for the assessment tasks at the end of the course will have evolved and been drawn from the contents of the visual arts journal.
Part One: Comparative Study
In preparation for the Comparative Study, you should use your journal to:
During the Comparative Study, you should use your journal to:
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Part Two: Process Portfolio
Use your journal to document your process work over time including:
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Part Three: The Exhibition
To support the curatorial rationale and exhibition text, use your journal to:
To support the exhibition, use your journal to:
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How do I get started?
- Getting Started - Put your name and school address inside the front cover. A phone number or email address is essential – you don’t want to lose it! Write “Book 1 of …. ” and put the date. Then leave the first page blank-- this can be used as a table of contents later.
- Number each page on the bottom right. You will be using both sides of ALL the pages. Numbering your pages makes it easy to refer back to an idea or thought. For instance, on p.60 of Book #3, you might sketch an idea and remember that you did something similar before. You could then write: “The drawing on p.27 of Book #2 could become a linoprint, see my notes on printing p.46.” Also remember to cross-reference it on pages 27 and 46!
- Always put the date, including the year at the top of each entry. This is so that your progress throughout the course can be clearly seen.
- Leave a little space at the top of each page.
- When you write in your journal try to use a dark pen, and write clearly. If you use a pencil make sure that it is quite dark. This is because you will have to scan pages when you create your screens.
- Never cut or tear pages out from your journal! Don’t stick pages together even if you have made what you think is a mistake or a terrible drawing. The journal has to show mistakes, good work and very importantly your development as an artist over a period of time.
- If you insert handouts or other pieces of paper, do not fold or overlap.
- Ensure that everything is securely attached, affixed, glued so that nothing important will fall out.
- When you are writing in your journal, don’t forget that the IB is an academic course and that your written notes should reflect that. Describe your feelings, successes and failures, comment upon your own progress, and your ideas about life but DON’T use slang or informal English! Remember that this is your journal, but it’s not being written for your friends – an IB examiner will be reading excerpts! Always try to use the correct art vocabulary in your journal. Look at www.artlex.com for a great example of an Art-specific dictionary online.
Works Cited
International Baccalaureate Organization. DP Visual Arts Guide. Cardiff: Peterson House, 2014. PDF.
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